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CHARLOTTE, NC – Your morning commute will get a little busier Monday. School buses will pick up more than 120,000 students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. With it comes added safety measures.
Parent Colleen Blanchard likes a new plan to catch drivers who pass stopped school buses. “I think that it’s a good idea and a good plan to at least be able to catch them in the act, as opposed to having to have other people’s eyes watching someone pass,” Blanchard says.
Starting Monday, some CMS drivers will roll out with cameras mounted on the side of their bus. “Maybe it doesn’t appear they’re going to stop. Their tires are going too fast,” says 14-year CMS bus driver Stephanie Brown.
Brown says it’s one of her biggest frustrations. “I see it on a daily basis. AM and PM runs this is going on,” she says.
“The camera then will be able to identify the profile of the driver as the car passes… and then the camera by the driver’s window will be able to get the license plate of the vehicle,” says CMS Safety & Training Specialist Devery Peterson.
CMS is starting the Stop Arm Camera program with two buses, but hopes to expand to more.
“Be on your P’s and Q’s, that you don’t know where these buses will be with the cameras, so don’t take your chances by passing any of the school buses,” says CMPD Officer Craig Allen.
The camera is always rolling; the driver presses a button to mark where they saw a violation. It costs $3,000 to outfit one bus; the state paid for the first two.
